When you’re comparing coffees at a purchase cupping and your menu and your budget is on the line, it’s crucial to be able to taste...

When you're roasting coffee for retail, it's not uncommon to find yourself in a positive feedback loop. Your customers (typically regulars and, if you're still a...

The most common customer request commercial coffee roasteries get is for low-acidity coffee. Before you run down that rabbit hole, here are a couple of...

Depending on your coffee quality target, buying green coffee can be either easy or one heck of a lot of work. If you’re roasting very...

We have worked very hard to build the most capable and most thoughtfully instrumented commercial coffee roasters ever built. We record data multiple times per...

I’ve been asked this question in class and seen it online innumerable times. "What has the greatest impact on a finished roast, the roast development...

We get asked quite often – what is a soak? When we refer to a soak in our Roasting 101 class, we’re generally talking about...

This is the fourth in an ongoing series on what tools we keep in the Mill City roastery for efficiency, quality control, and more. Click...

The mystery of blending In a recent post about creating a great Holiday Blend, I mentioned a few strategies for blending greens. Blending helps roasters create...

Blending Basics Blending coffees is a topic we cover every time we teach our roasting classes. We share some of the best practices, methodology, and...

This is the fourth in an ongoing series on what tools we keep in the Mill City roastery for efficiency, quality control, and more. Click...

This is the third in an ongoing series on what tools we keep in the Mill City roastery for efficiency, quality control, and more. Click...

This is the second in an ongoing series on what tools we keep in the Mill City roastery for efficiency, quality control, and more. Click...

This is the final post in a four-part series about how and why we cup coffee at Mill City. Click to read Part One, Part...

Where to start? There are so many decisions to make when starting your roasting business. What size roaster to purchase, where to install it, what...

This is the first in an ongoing series on what tools we keep in the Mill City Roastery for efficiency, quality control, and more. What...

This is the third in a four-part series about how and why we cup coffee at Mill City. Click to read Part One and Part...

It’s time for our quarterly maintenance at Mill City Roasters! If you’re on a similar schedule, you may want to start thinking about diving into...

This is the second in a four-part series about how and why we cup coffee at Mill City. Click here for part one. Fragrance and...

This is the first in a four-part series about how and why we cup coffee at Mill City. Out of all of the protocols and...

Whether you’re checking quality control of a roast, brewing a pour-over for customers, or ensuring espresso shots pull correctly, identifying if a coffee is properly...

A few days ago, I recorded a video about sample roasting. In the video, I shared our “profile” for sample roasting here at Mill City,...

There are a lot of options to make when you brew coffee by hand, including the shape of the brewer. Pour-over brewers can have either...

In our roastery, I’m constantly exploring new brew methods and recipes. This past week, I found three recipes for AeroPress that I thoroughly enjoyed. After...

Moving forward from the principles we laid out in last week’s blog post about grind size, we know why our grind size is important. Now,...

Why is grind size important? Our grind size plays a vital role in how we brew coffee and significantly impacts the flavors we extract. Being...

Throughout my many years of brewing, serving, roasting, and teaching people about coffee, one of the most frequent and derisive conversations I have had is...

What is a flash brew? Flash iced brew coffee is simple. Take the full amount of water you would use in a hot brew and...

Welcome back to our ongoing educational series in which we find ways to bridge the gap between the roaster and the barista.   In our...

Welcome to a new educational series in which we find ways to bridge the gap between the roaster and the barista, whose common goal of...